The Role Of Parent-Child Conflicts In Romeo And Juliet

Two teenagers fall in love at first sight, it’s a common, yet moving story. An extremely renowned play, one famously known throughout the world, was written by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare shows that one of the worst conflicts there can be is a parent-child conflict. The title characters in Shakespeare’s aforementioned play, Romeo and Juliet, proves the conflict between parents and children can end in tragedy. The conflict between the parents and children in Romeo and Juliet starts before the title characters meet, for Romeo it started when he became overwhelmed by his depression that he fell for a woman who promised herself to god and planned to become a nun. In the first scene of the play, “Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, And makes himself an

Immediately after Juliet met Romeo and they consummated their marriage, Lady Capulet told Juliet of her father's decision to marry her to Paris, “Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn The gallant, young, and noble gentleman, The County Paris. At Saint Peter’s Church, Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride.”(3.5.126-130). Juliet then responds fiercely, “Now by Saint Peter’s Church, and Peter too, He shall not make me there joyful bride!”(3.5.131-132) indicating that she does not want to marry Paris, which finally informs her parents of part of the conflict. Romeo’s conflict, however, is with a parental figure, not his parents. He approaches Friar Lawrence after the Capulets party asking the Friar to marry him to Juliet, to which Friar Lawrence responds, “Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken?”(2.3.66-67). This conflict only last for a short amount of time, but changes the course of the play entirely, for if Friar Lawrence had not married the two in the hopes of uniting the families and quelling the feud, then Juliet never would have had to worry about breaking her vow to Romeo by marrying